The Brisbane Broncos gave captain Darren Lockyer a fitting send-off in an exciting 18-10 win over Manly at a packed-out Lang Park on Sunday night.

Playing his last home-and-away match for the Broncos before the finals begin, Lockyer enjoyed victory while not quite scoring enough points to overtake the Sea Eagles and secure second place. The Broncos finish the season in third.

There was some bad news for Brisbane however, with Josh Hoffman injured just 14 minutes into play with early reports suggesting he could be sidelined heading into finals week.

Sam Thaiday was also put on report for a spear tackle on Brent Kite which came off very badly and could also see the future Broncos captain miss Brisbane's finals clash against the Warriors.

An estimated 15,000 fans surrounded a stage set up on the field for Lockyer's special presentation following the full-time siren.

The sea of fans roared their approval when their hero was presented with a framed glass case containing a piece of the hallowed Lang Park grass inside.

"It's pretty touching actually," said Lockyer of his second farewell following an emotional State of Origin exit on the same ground in July.

"I just saw a bit more vision on the telly.

"Probably from where I was standing on the stage I couldn't see the scope of it all.

"This whole month, and particularly this week, the supporters have been fantastic and I can't thank them enough."

But Des Hasler rallied his troops during the interval as Tony Williams and Daly Cherry-Evans scored a try each two minutes apart from each other to bring Manly within four points of their hosts.

But Gerard Beale found an incisive angle to wrong-foot Jamie Lyon and slice through the visitors' defence to put Brisbane eight points up.

Yow Yeh told Grandstand his side still had to work through the gears against a depleted Manly side as the Broncos look to find their rhythm for the finals.

"I think we're just trying to get our best game into the finals which is what all teams want to do and I think today showed a little bit what a semi-final's going to be like," he said.

"I think we've still got a couple of things to work on, I think we blew a bit of cobwebs out of our game today.

"It's good to see a lot of Broncos fans come out for Locky because he deserves it, he's been a great ambassador for rugby league and for the young blokes here at the club as well, so it's good to see a good turnout for him."

Hasler was full of praise for his side's fighting display - but only after having a crack at the media.

The Sea Eagles mentor had plenty to say during the week, "reluctantly" accepting a $50,000 fine for the club's role in the brawl before questioning how the NRL would use the money.

And he was in fine form again on Sunday.

Asked what he thought of Manly's effort, Hasler said: "What did you think?

"Something a bit positive, eh?"

Hasler finally gave his side a rap, but again raised how "unjustly" his club had been treated in the lead-up.

"I thought they were very good, given the circumstances coming up here," he said.

"It was a great experience for our boys to play in an environment like that - I thought they handled it pretty well.

"As a club which has been fairly heavily ridiculed in the past week, unjustly sometimes, I thought they responded the best way today - they let their football do the talking."

Hasler again became obtuse when asked about Sam Thaiday's lifting tackle on Manly's Brent Kite that resulted in the Broncos forward being placed on report.

"What did you think? Does it matter?" he said.

Unlike Hasler, Sea Eagles captain Jamie Lyon insists it was "business as usual" in the build-up to the match.

"We all saw and heard what was going on," he said.

"But we had a job to do and came to training and didn't let it affect us.